Exploring the ancient secrets of Tuscany, which are often overlooked by travellers

Tuscany is one of the most beautiful landscapes of Italy, with its rolling fields and vineyards, cypress-lined roads and walled villages rising from the crest of nearly every hill.Few people realise, however, that Tuscany was once the home of a mysterious race of people known as the Etruscans.Little is left of them except their strange cities of the dead, the tombs painted with vivid frescoes of dancers and hunters and warriors.Yet the Etruscans invented one of the earliest alphabets, the toga, gladiators, and hydraulic engineering, all of which were appropriated by the Romans.READ MORE: Italian lakes that most tourists don't know aboutI went to Italy last year to find what faint traces of their lives were left, for I had decided to set my latest novel Psykhe at a time when Etruscan kings ruled Rome. The earliest known painting of the ancient myth of Eros and Psykhe was found in an Etruscan crypt, and I had become fascinated by their rich, vibrant culture.READ MORE: How to take your dream trip to Italy without blowing all your savingsMy family came with me, eager to sit in a piazza, drinking Aperol spritzes, eating homemade gnocchi and watching the world go by. But soon they were as intrigued as I was, and came with me on my expeditions to discover Tuscany's ancient secrets. The Etruscans were Western Europe's first highly advanced civilisation, established in the early 8th century BCE.Etruscan women were well-educated and active in public life, permitted to ride and feast with men and own their own property, unlike their contemporaries in Greece and Rome.One of the most beautiful remnants of their lives is the Sarcophagus of the Spouses in the National Etruscan Museum in Rome, which shows a man and a woman lying together on a couch, propped up on cushions, smiling gently, the man's arm about his wife's shoulders, one of her hands reaching towards him as if to grasp his (now missing) hand. It was made almost three millennia ago. READ MORE: The best budget cities for travellers in Europe have been revealedIn the same museum is a life-sized terracotta statue of the god Aplu (roughly equivalent to Apollo), believed to have been made by Vulca, the only Etruscan artist known by name. He also helped design the famous Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill, in which his giant statue of Jupiter stood. Being made of terracotta, the statue had a red face, and so victorious Roman generals would paint their faces red during their triumphal marches through the city. A few hours north of Rome is the town of Cerveteri where a vast city of the dead with beehive-shaped tombs is laid out in grids of streets like a town for the living. Many of the burial chambers are constructed like homes, with living rooms and sleeping chambers. With their roofs overgrown with grass, they look like hobbit houses. Since so much of Etruscan culture and language has vanished – with only a few inscriptions left here and there for scholars to try and decipher – their tombs and grave goods give us the clearest insight into their lives and beliefs.The necropolis of Tarquinia, less than an hour further north, gives us a glimpse of how the Etruscans viewed the world, for the walls of their tombs are painted with vivid depictions of their life. READ MORE: The most in-demand cruise destinations for Aussies in 2024The earliest tomb was opened in 1780. A British artist named James Byres managed to sketch the figures painted along the wall before they disintegrated from contact with the air.One of his drawings shows the winged god of desire, Eros, being held back from the gateway to the underworld by Psykhe, easily recognisable because of her butterfly wings, representing the metamorphosis of the soul after death. Although this first known illustration of the famous myth is now lost, the frescoes in other tombs remain astonishingly vivid. A hunter with a catapult in one hand tries to catch a bird, leopards stalk through a forest, warriors fight, musicians play, and dancers reach towards each other, toes pointed, arms raised like ballerinas.It must be remembered these paintings were done for the benefit of the dead, not the living. Once the tomb was shut, they never saw the light of day again till they were rediscovered thousands of years later. The best insight of the everyday life of the Etruscans is found in Orvieto, in the heartland of Tuscany. Built high on a towering outcrop of volcanic stone, it was the last of the Etruscan hill towns to surrender to the conquering Romans. Under the winding, cobbled streets and sunbaked squares is an underground labyrinth of ancient caves and cellars, dovecotes and stables, deep wells, temples, and escape tunnels used during times of conflict. Afterwards, we came back up into the warm sunshine and ate schiacciata stuffed with porchetta cooked with rosemary and sage - the best sandwich I have ever eaten - knowing that the massive stone walls behind me have been protecting people from harm for more than two-and-a-half thousand years. I could almost hear their voices.Dr Kate Forsyth is an award-winning author, poet, and storyteller. Her most recent novel Psykhe is a re-telling of the much-loved myth from the perspective of the woman at its centre.